This invention concerns a device to draw mushroom-shaped corks.
The device to draw mushroom-shaped corks according to the invention is employed to uncork bottles, which are advantageously bottles containing sparkling wine, such as champagne or other sparkling wines, the bottles being closed with a cork formed as a mushroom.
The device to draw mushroom-shaped corks is able to draw such corks made of cork or of a plastic from bottles which may be of a type with a neck containing a protruding ledge or of a type with a neck for crown corks.
Bottles are known which normally contain sparkling wines and are closed with a mushroom-shaped cork consisting of cork or a plastic and generally retained by a suitably intertwined metallic wire to prevent the cork emerging independently.
These mushroom-shaped corks are generally drawn by hand by rotating the cork in its seating and withdrawing it progressively.
These operations are not always easy to carry out inasmuch as in some cases, if the cork is especially tightly sealed, the rotation of the cork requires a great effort and therefore some persons cannot uncork the bottle.
Moreover, the outer shape of the protruding head of the cork, which has substantially the form of a mushroom, does not make possible an easy engagement by the user as his hand slips on the circumferential surface of the mushroom-shaped head.
Furthermore, it often happens during the drawing operations that the cork comes out unexpectedly and independently without the user being able to hold it, thus causing damage to objects and persons along the path of the cork with all the unpleasant consequences involved.
Devices to draw mushroom-shaped corks have been disclosed but have been found to be not very practical and hard to use.
A first type of device disclosed consists of a kind of gripper of a nut-cracker type, the jaws of which are tightened about the head of the cork; the device is rotated by means of its arms, with the bottle held stationary, so as to draw the cork from the mouth of the bottle.
This device enables corks to be drawn even when they are especially tightly sealed, but the corks may prove to be dangerous if they emerge violently and unexpectedly. Another type of disclosed device is shaped as a gripper, in which one end of the jaws includes lateral fork means that are inserted sideways between the lower base of the head of the cork and the mouth of the bottle. In this case the cork is not gripped between the jaws, but the fork means act as a lifting element. To be more exact, the two arms are brought towards each other and a first fork means is rested on the neck of the bottle, while the other fork means is distanced from the first fork means and thus raises the cork.
This device too to draw the cork has been found to be not very practical and does not ensure the drawing of the cork in one single operation.